Modern Goddess: Trapped by Thor (Book One) (8 page)

Before I had time to register it – before
I had time to scream – the thing tugged on me with immortal
strength. My hands were ripped away from the ladder, and I
plummeted back down the access tunnel. Only when I was about half
way down did I bother to let out a scream. It was short, it was
sharp, and it was mostly stifled due to the horrendous pressure of
the thing around my middle.

I slammed into the bottom of the tunnel.
It wasn't enough to kill me, just enough to daze me.

The grip around my middle
was only growing
tighter. With my face pressed into the dank dark water of the
tunnel floor, I desperately tried to figure out what was going
on.

Being the goddess of details, I wasn't
good with fast situations. I was more inclined to quietly note
every single leaf on a tree – I was less inclined to immediately
reach for the axe when said tree turned out to be an enchanted
demon.

I could feel the fact my hair had come
undone and was stuck to my face, a few strands spreading out in the
water below me. I could also feel the fact my glasses were
shattered. The broken glass and frames were sticking into my
flesh.

None of this was enough to kill or harm me.
What was enough, however, was the growing grip around my
middle.

The tentacle began to pull me backwards. I
could feel my hair drag through the cold water and stick to my face
and clothes.

I could feel the exact pressure being
exerted around my middle – the way it slammed up against my power
and forced it back.

I could smell the sharp scent of earth and
an acrid bitter aroma that sat above it. It smelt like burnt
bones.

The tentacle began to twist me around. The
increase in pressure around my middle stopped. It was still strong
enough to keep me in place, and to keep my meagre goddess powers in
check – but it wasn't about to kill me anymore.

As I twisted, I realized what the thing was
going to do. It was going to turn me around until I came
face-to-face with it. It was going to stare at me in an
I'm-going-to-eat-you-in-a-second way before promptly gobbling me
down.

Before it could go through with
its plans
,
something soared down from the access tunnel above. Several things
did.

They weren't things. They were gods.

One after one, five heavy-set gods plopped
down into the dank water of the tunnel. Though they had bypassed
the ladder and jumped the considerable height, they hardly hit the
tunnel floor with much force – not as much force as physics would
have liked, anyway.

As the tentacled-thing turned me, I caught a
glimpse of the god at the lead. I already knew who it was:
Thor.

The question was, was Thor in such a mood
that he would kill me first then the sea monster – or would he kill
the monster and leave me until last?

Before Thor had a chance to do any
posturing, the creature reared up – trying to show its impressive
height and girth in the confines of the tunnel. Though the tunnel
was large, the creature was massive, and I heard a squish as the
top of the thing smashed into the concrete above.

As the thing rose, it took me with it, and
soon my head pressed right up against the ceiling, my body still as
limp as a dead flower – but I had the pleasure of my face being
smooshed into dank concrete to go along with it.

“
Sea monster,” Thor roared
from somewhere below me, “Denizen of the deep.”

I wanted to scream at him to get the hell
on with it – but I couldn't make a sound with the grip around my
waist, and I still wasn't sure whether Thor would attack me first.
I hoped he wouldn't....

The sea creature wasn't all that enthused
by the prospect of listening to a Thor-rant either, and began to
move.

He was retreating – the blasted sea
monster was acquainted with odds, and didn't like the blond-bearded
ones that carried magical hammers.

The thing moved fast, astoundingly fast
considering how darn huge it was.

Thor shouted something suitably godly from
behind like, “Hey, wet-one, get back here!” but I could no longer
hear him. The sensation of being tightly gripped by an immortal
tentacle as the humongous owner of said tentacle launched itself
down a flood drain with all the speed of a bullet train, was too
distracting.

I wondered for a fleeting second where this
thing was taking me, whether it was going to find some nice
junction somewhere it could peacefully and quietly gobble me
down.

It didn't get the chance. From behind, I
heard a familiar whistle. I instinctively winced and tried to duck
– though I could hardly move.

I need not have worried. Thor's
hammer did come screaming out of the blackness, but it wasn't aimed
at my head. It sliced right through the tentacle
that held me before
boomeranging back to Thor.

“
You are right to flee me, sea
monster.”

It took a second for the tentacle gripping
me to fall free from the body of the sea monster – it felt like I
was on a seesaw gently slipping down. Then gentle turned to quick
and violent, and the tentacle, with me still attached to it,
slammed down to the ground.

It landed close to Thor, so close that he
could have easily caught me. He didn’t bother to try.

I hit the ground with considerable force,
the tentacle pressing me hard into the dank concrete. It somehow
still had a grip on me – even though it was no longer attached.

The sea monster gave a great and terrible
cry, a sudden and violent burst of acrid air escaping from its
fang-covered mouth.

The scent of the thing surrounded me, but
I still couldn't move under the grip that enclosed me.

“
You are right to scream,
too,” Thor added casually.

I felt a tentacle swipe down from above and
noted the giant press of air it brought with it. It didn’t flatten
me – it headed for Thor instead.

Thor dodged out of its way and hooked a
powerful arm around it as it passed. He twisted up until he stood
on the thing and ran along its length – back to the head to which
it was attached.

I heard a sharp, loud, oddly welcome
ringing. Thor brought his hammer up in a great arc and slammed it
right into the center of the sea monster's less-than-attractive
head.

The thing let out a great cry and a gurgle
that sounded like water going down the drain, before
unceremoniously falling over.

Thor lithely jumped off, landing easily in
the dank water without a splash marking his clean jeans.

“
Ha,” he chortled. “Totally
beat you, you stupid sea monster.”

The relief washed over me.

I was safe.

...
.

Except the tentacle – the heavy oppressive
one that blocked my power – was still attached to me.

Thor stared up at his handy work, Mjollnir
held over one shoulder, his other hand clamped firmly on his hip.
He looked pleased with himself. Why wouldn't he? He'd
single-handedly taken down a giant sea monster, while the most I'd
been able to do was note how exquisitely strong it had been while
it had dragged me off into the darkness.

Before I could indulge in self-pity, I felt
something odd: I was moving. Or rather, the tentacle holding me
was. It wasn't moving in a twitching way, nor was it growing limp
and letting me loose. Nope, it was dragging me down the tunnel as
if the fact it had lost 90% of its body – including the important
brainy parts – was a minor setback.

Due to its horrendous grip, I couldn’t
call out for help.

Thor was too enthused with his
victory to bother looking down at the skulking tentacle sneaking me
off down the tunnel. Instead, he was poking one of the attached
tentacles with his hammer like a child prodding a dead
animal
they
find in the woods.

The thing was quick. I had enough time to
catch a last fleeting glance of Thor tipping his head back and
shouting that this was the perfect way to finish off a night,
before I was pulled around a bend in the tunnel.

I’d never, in all the time I’d known Thor,
wanted him to take the time to stare down at me more than I did
now.

He didn't – he was too busy being
victorious, which is what he lived for, after all. Saving
small-time detail goddesses from autonomous tentacles would be an
annoying side note to him.

I tried with all my might – with what
power I could spare that wasn't keeping me alive – to call his
name. It wasn't a name I usually wanted to shout unless it was
followed with a well-placed insult, or the words “Your application
for a visa is rejected due to your uncontrollable and riotous
behavior.”

Now was different.

“
T- T,” I managed, my mouth
barely moving. “Thor.”

There, I said it. By the time I had, I was
already too far off to be heard.

Or I thought I was.

Something came whistling out of the
darkness, and it wasn't an overly jolly janitor – it was
Mjollnir.

The hammer headed straight for me, and I
was genuinely worried Thor was going to kill me – then the thing
stopped dead in space and dropped right on the end of the tentacle,
pinning it in place.

The tentacle couldn't scream – it didn't
have a mouth. The sentiment was there in the way it thrashed. But
no matter how much it tried, it couldn’t get free. The weight of
Mjollnir was legendary.

I heard heavy footsteps approach.

My face was pressed into the wall of the
tunnel, my lips and cheek smooshed as if someone had my head pushed
up against a window. As such, my field of view was limited.

I still saw Thor make his slow way over to
me. The other gods were behind him, all sauntering in that
particular way only macho gods can.

Thor had one eyebrow raised. He stopped a
half-a-meter from me and stared down. “Now.”

It was a preamble, but a preamble to what? I
kill you, Details. I leave you here to rot. I take the opportunity,
considering you are pinned to the floor by an immortal tentacle, to
flick you in the nose.

Several of the other gods laughed – macho
laughs, because they were in we-kill-monsters-mode. This was not a
time for giggling or twittering.

Now the tentacle was pinned, its grip
waned. I was able to concentrate on my powers. I tried hard to draw
in all the details I could.

The way the concrete pressed into my face,
the way Mjollnir looked solid and immovable as it pinned the
tentacle, the way the other gods stood behind Thor, and the way
Thor's T-shit was clean despite the sea-monster-in-a-flood-drain
battle of moments before.

There it was. I could feel the power.

I didn't bother telling Thor to get this
tentacle off me. I didn't try to plead with one of the other gods
to let me free. I was going to do this on my own.

I turned my full attention on Thor. I
watched the way he stood – the way he planted his feet with equal
balance, the way his back was straighter than a tower. I saw the
shadows play across his face, though there was no light down here
to warrant the difference between a shadow and a highlight. I
looked at the way he stood there, hands clamped on his hips as he
stared back at me.

He was clearly watching me too – noting
every hilarious detail of my face smooshed up against the concrete.
Noting the way my usually criminally neat hair was a wet mess
plastered over my face and back. Hell, he was having a good look at
my torn blouse and my mud covered neck and arms.

Watching him watch me – noting the way he
looked as he noted the way I did – created a sort of feedback loop.
My power surged. I was a goddess of details – and while I was
sustained through those details, I still oversaw that same faculty
in others.

I doubted he was doing it on purpose – Thor
was darn dim witted.

I cut through the strength of the tentacle,
pushed back into it, and pulled free. The thing thudded to the
ground and sent an unwelcome spray of water scattering over my body
and face.

Thor watched me as I rose to my feet, then
he crossed his arms and laughed.

I took a needless breath and stared down at
the tentacle.

“
This must be a big night for
you, Details.” Thor opened his hand wide and his hammer shot
straight into his grip. “Insulting gods and being hunted by sea
monsters.”

He hadn't forgotten about that, then? Part
of me had hoped the rare opportunity to fight a bona fide immortal
sea monster on Earth would have been enough to quell his temper for
at least as long as it took to gloat.

My sides ached and my head was filled with a
thick heavy fog. I didn't have a scrap of energy left to engage in
any hearty banter with Thor.

I swayed on my feet.

Thor narrowed his eyes.

“
What's a sea monster doing
in these tunnels?” one of the other gods asked.

“
It's a little cramped down
here,” another noted, more worried that the poor sea monster had
been forced to put up with a painfully small abode, and less
worried about the fact sea monsters in human flood drains was a bad
thing.

Typical god behavior – they never wondered
what the flow-on effects to the rest of the world would be. That's
where the Integration Office came in. The office was set up to
ensure the smooth and seamless integration of gods and goddesses
into human and alien societies. The Immigration Office was only one
arm of it. There were customs and the police, too. As soon as I
told them – or as soon as I had enough breath to tell them – the
office would be a hive of activity considering the fact an ancient
immortal sea monster had somehow infiltrated a human
city.